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If I was Li Yongbo, I would kick her out of the national team and send her back to her home province. If one had seen her match against Uchida today, one would have been appalled - it's one thing to try hard and unfortunately just have your opponent be better; it's another thing entirely to play like you're not trying at all and actively want to lose.

Yeah, it's a pain to watch WYH a pale shadow of her former self;the WYH I know is gone; to make it worse, she's not even trying hard to get back as mrinalini put it. I feel she needs to take a break to sort out her problems, whatever they are (personal, family, health,etc.).

WYH cannot strategies anything as RI is so skillful and deceptive with fabulous
footwork - so she uses her fitness, stamina and reach to chase and keep the
birdie in play and hope for the best.
RI lost because she lack match fitness after the long layoff but she is merely
upping her ranking points to qualify for dec masters final - I think even she and her
coach knows her level is below her best and not in position to win Denmark open,
and unfortunately the draw do not favour her and she has to play her boogie
opponent!

Yup, RI lost because she could not sustain the attack where her fitness wasn't good. She cleared many shots towards the end of the 3rd game which she should have smash down the line. WYH is tall and clears won't hurt her. In fact, some of the clears were smashed by WYH.

I beg to differ. WYH didn't win purely by her superior stamina (which hasn't been good of late) or strength (if so her smashes would not be easily returned) or height advantage but more by her ability to read Intanon's game fairly well. As the commentators rightly pointed out, she used her brains and the right tactics to counter her opponent's game as the match progressed.

Some of Intanon's errors were not unforced and she had to change her shots such as overhead smashes down the line or cross courts when she realized WYH was beginning to anticipate them better. It's not like Intanon suddenly acquired her specialty shots which she didn't possessed before when she lost to WYH the previous encounters. That's just my opinion.

Yes, WYH was running all over the court as I've said in the tournament thread but that happened mostly in the first half or so of the match. But as she began to read and anticipate Intanon's shots better towards the latter half, she managed to adjust her game better, cut down her errors and gradually pushed Intanon hard, even sending her opponent scrambling across the long diagonal on a few occasions. Also Intanon's favourite cross court net play was sometimes expected by WYH.

Btw, being able to run all over the court and retrieve the opponent's shots, not lose them too often, is a mark of amazing retrieving ability. But doing that all the time can be very tiring, that's why it's also necessary,nay essential, to read the opponent's game well enough which saves you from having to scurry for them every time. At the same time, anticipating your opponent's shots more often than not means you can reach the shuttle earlier to give yourself more options and turn defense into attack sometimes or even simply go on the offense when the opportunity arises. Again, just my 2cents.

But how would you explain RI has lost all previous meeting against WYH?

Good question. You don't beat an opponent seven times in a row and each victory wasn't years apart from the one before and attribute it, the last one, or all of them to luck playing a significant part.

I am reminded of the other famous shutout, 9 - 0 H2H, inflicted on Tine Baun by the redoubtable Wang Xin.